Nigeria and other African countries have been advised to support and increase funding for capacity building for their individual structural transformation and economic development as well as to achieve national development plans and budgets’ implementation.
As part of achieving this on continental scale, the African countries have been urged to lend their voices and political support to the African Capacity Building Foundation’s (ACBF) goal of building requisite manpower on the continent in accordance with the dreams of its African founding fathers.
These were parts of the key messages by continental leaders, top capacity building leaders and strategic partners at the opening of 24th Annual Meeting of the Africa Capacity ACBF Board of Governors, which kicked off in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Wednesday.
Its theme is: “Developing Capacity to Mobilise Domestic Resources to Finance Africa’s Transformation”.
ACBF is a continental foundation established in 1991 to build human and institutional capacity for sustainable growth and poverty eradication in Africa.
Those, who spoke at the event were the Executive Secretary of ACBF, Prof. Emmanuel Nnadozie; Deputy Chairperson, African Union Commission Erastus Mwencha; Ethiopian Minister of State for Finance Alemayehu Gujo; Chair of Board of Governor of ACBF and Gabon’s Minister of Budget and Public Accounts Christian Magnagna; Chair, ACBF Executive Board Chair Prof. Callisto Enias Madavo, represented by Mrs. Gun-Britt Andersson of Sweden and Director of Capacity Building of United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Adeyemi Dipeolu.
Nnadozie, in his welcome address, thanked the foundation’s governors and delegates for accepting to attend the strategic annual meeting.
He noted that the meeting came at a critical moment when ACBF is approaching the end of its Third Strategic Medium Term Plan (2012-2016) and planning for the next five years.
The foundation’s executive secretary said though ACBF and other partners have supported capacity building initiatives in Africa, but it was clear that the picture had not been as positive as it should be.
His words: “In fact, African countries are faced with, among other challenges the capacity to mobilise domestic resources to implement Agenda 2063 and the post-2015 development agenda; the national institutional and human capacity to domesticate and coordinate regional and continental policies; and the capacity to implement national, regional and continental policies which has a lot to do with the ability to design, plan, execute, monitor and evaluate programmes.
“Looking ahead, the forecast for much of African countries remains very encouraging. For example, Africa is ranked as the second fastest growing region and is more likely to maintain such position and even be the fastest in the world. Africa can make faster progress and take its rightful place in a globalised world. The fundamentals are in place in many countries: performance is better now than over the last three decades, young people will be well-schooled and well-trained for good jobs, etc. It is up to Africa and its leaders to seize and benefit from this window of opportunity. We however need to strengthen and retain the capacities to make this optimistic scenario prevail.”
In the last two to three years, he said he and the secretariat “are doing our best to sustain the confidence that ACBF has rebuilt with our partners; ensuring a financially sustainable ACBF; an ACBF, where African countries are showing increased ownership by paying their contributions; an ACBF which is efficiently coordinating its capacity building initiatives throughout Africa; an ACBF which is strongly working with other development partners to sustainably tackle capacity challenges on the continent; and implementing our vision of having ACBF operating in virtually all African countries”.
To accelerate the development of the foundation in the next three-five years, Nnadozie pleaded for support of its governors and strategic partners for more funding, commitment of all African countries through their minimum financial contribution to ACBF, especially its forthcoming Strategic Plan (2017-2021) and partnership and support in the mobilisation of financial resources towards the development of continental, regional and national capacity building strategies and initiatives.
The ACBF’s Executive Secretary noted that the foundation will be clocking 25 years of existence in February next year and it is planning to celebrate the successes achieved over the years and reflect on what could be done better.
“We do sincerely hope that you can join us in this feat,” he said.
Nnadozie affirmed that the discussions, synergies and decisions to have during the meeting would help guide ACBF’s strategic direction, building on its longstanding success.
“The deliberation will also help to ensure that the foundation remains an integral part of the continental response to the structural transformation of the continent and the successful implementation of the SDGs and Agenda 2063,” he said.
Mwencha said a very strong link existed between the success of Agenda 2063 and the enhancement of capacity on the continent.
He added all the seven aspirations outlined in Agenda 2063 required substantive investment in capacity building.
African governments, the AU Commission chief noted, are heavily investing in development as witnessed by the large number of infrastructure projects taking place across the continent at both the national and regional levels.
“But when it’s all said and done, infrastructure does dilapidate over time, requiring maintenance and at times renewal. Investing in human capital and institutions therefore remains the single most important investment a country can make. This is what the continent needs to focus on,” Mwencha said.
The AU Commission’s chief noted that in the rapidly changing world, the most important asset any country could have” is firstly its people and then its institutions”.
He added that many countries across the world believed that capacity building “is a basic prerequisite for structural transformation, inclusive growth and sustainable development”.
“ACBF has, over the years, undoubtedly contributed to positioning capacity building at the centre of the debate on Africa’s structural transformation and sustainable development. For so long, we have seen the neglect of the nexus between capacity building and development, both at the human development and institutional levels. This needs to be urgently corrected,” Mwencha said.
But Ethiopian Minister of State for Finance hinged the country’s solid economic performance and double digit growth over the last decade on investment made in capacity building.
Gujo added that his government recognised that capacity building “is a building block of the country’s poverty reduction strategy, as capacity limitation both in the public and private sector are the main challenges to provide the required services”.
He urged African countries to take a cue from Germans, who “year after year, decade after decade patiently building up skills, investing in workers, institutions, new technology, research and innovation”.
“They do it, not because it yields immediate results but because they know it gives them an unassailable lead several years down the road. They keep building at it. There are no short cuts to capacity building, the earlier you start the better off you will be in the long term, this is a key take away point from the Ethiopian experience,” he said.
He urged AU member-states to support ACBF’s work with the AU on the Agenda 2063 capacity needs assessment and the preparation of a capacity development plan.
“Capacity building is a long term investment, which we must make if we are to achieve structural transformation,” Gujo added.
